Gale from the Sun
by LifeNDeath72
Summary: On a cursed night, a flame was born. On a blessed night, the same flame was extinguished. And on a hallowed day, the flame was reborn. All instances being the tenth date of the tenth month. A flame that can both protect and destroy. A flame that can change the world. May contain other, but minor series. Phenex-Naru. Main: Naru/Sera. Harem. Has some AU.
1. Sun's Tale I:

**Early Childhood**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, High School DxD or anything else. Also due to the DxD series' nature, I do not mean to offend anybody's beliefs and all that jazz, nor am I a practitioner of Demonology.  
**

* * *

Fire.

It was a truly fascinating thing. It was a phenomenon that was able to bring light unto the world, illuminating even the darkest of shadows. Even in the most minute amounts, it was able to bring warmth in the coldest environments. Such a case rang true to the world we live in. For if the greatest source of fire: the Sun never existed, the world would be an uninhabitable place to live.

But as much as fire brought good to the world, it equally carried some bad.

It was a very volatile element. True, the other elements can be just as equally destructive as fire. But none held the raw nature to destroy like fire did. In their natural state, Water flowed calmly as it gave life to the world, only capable of destruction through massive torrents. Earth was passive and infrequent, showing its power only when a catalyst is involved. Wind blew across the world gently without a care in the world, uncaring or unknowing of the destruction it leaves in its wake. Fire was not deluding himself that he was made to protect, he knew that he was an element that was meant to turn everything that crosses him the wrong way into ashes.

But that was not to say a compromise was impossible.

For it was on a cursed night was such a flame born. As it was on a blessed night was the same flame extinguished. And it was on a hallowed day that the flame was reborn. All instances being the tenth night of the tenth month.

A flame that can both protect and destroy.

* * *

"How about this one, Master?" A youthful, almost child-like sounding voice asked, pointing to a screen depicting a young blonde teenager lying on the ground as another male teenager with black hair knelt down next to him. The two figures on the screen were inaudibly talking to each other until the blonde teen placed a hand on his stomach, twisted it and released what looked like a giant Nine-Tailed Fox with orange-red fur. "Master?" The voice asked again, turning away from the monitor.

"Hm... Very well. He will do nicely. However, alter the 'Parameters: Lineage and Memory. It certainly wouldn't do well to entertain me if everything was the same." The 'Master' said, the voice sounding distorted but discernible enough to his servant. It was an indeterminable figure hidden within shadows. "For 'Parameter: Memory', do not erase. Only place in a temporary block. The conditions for removal are TBD. While only use a light alteration for 'Parameter: Lineage'."

"We are not to alter his abilities?"

"No. He will still have his current abilities, but the only thing preventing him from accessing them will be his memories. The 'When' and 'How' of how he learns them again or not will be up to him."

"By your command, Master." The youthful voice complied. Turning back to the monitors as they watched the blonde be given a proper funeral pyre. Watching this in the scene itself is the boy's black haired companion who was accompanied by a bubblegum-pink haired girl, a man with gravity-defying silver hair and the Nine-Tailed Fox from earlier. The scene then depicted a face being carved on the side of a mountain with five other faces on it. The face being carved had spiky hair, a little like the second, third and fourth faces. But this one had three large scars on each cheek making him look like he had whiskers and was smiling, almost grinning like a fox. On the foreground was the same black-haired teen, now a young adult wearing white and red robes and had a hat with the kanji for 'fire' on it in his hands, watching the process unfold.

The monitor then turned to static before shutting off, the hissing sound of steam erupting as it did so. The figure of the 'Master' shuffled around within the darkness, looking towards a small capsule that opened and released a warm gold light that flew away into who knows where. The feed on the monitor returned, depicting a blonde man fretting in what looked like a strangely-darkening corridor outside of a hospital delivery room.

"Now then, Naruto Uzumaki. How will 'YOU' work in this environment?"

* * *

"Hey, Dad..." A spiky-haired, sunny-blonde child at 6 years old asked as his whisker-marked, light-tan face looked around the large stone pit with a stencil-like design of a bird on the ground and surrounded by a few concrete bleachers at the sides. Seeing there were barely any other features, the boy's bright, cerulean-blue eyes looked towards the people sitting on the bleachers. Many of them sported a lighter shade of blonde hair, with some having a few gray streaks, and most sported a darker shade of blue eyes. But his eyes locked on to a woman who had blonde hair styled in an ornate bun with two shoulder-length bangs on the side and chocolate-brown eyes instead of blue and wore an elegant pink and white dress. She gave him a smile and mouthed a 'Do your best!', making the boy more curious as to what is going on. "...What are we doing here?"

The person the boy's question was addressed to, his father, could only be described as what the boy could look like at that age. The man had the same shade of blonde hair and spiky design as the boy, with two jaw-length bangs to frame his face and similarly shaded eyes as him. He wore a navy-blue shirt under a forest-green vest and a long-sleeved, waist-length white coat with gold clasps and a red flame-patterned hem, navy-blue slacks and black boots. The man just smiled warmly as he answered his son's question. "We're here to see if you're ready to start training in your Magic, Naruto. I know you've been dabbling into it while you're in your room, your mother and I don't want you to get hurt by keeping it a secret and accidentally burn the Manor down."

"You knew?" The boy, Naruto asked in surprise only for his father to quickly answer with a nod. "Hehe~... I guess I can't keep a secret from my parents~. So why are the old crones here too?" The boy asked, ignoring the collective groaning of the elders as the woman from earlier stifled a giggle.

Even the father laughed a little at that, knowing his son barely had a care for formalities. He didn't bother lecturing his son about it, since the boy would just forget about it the next day, much to the annoyance of the elders. "As you know, I am the current head of the Phenex Clan, one of the 72 Pillars which are the Noble Families of Devil Society. You being my son will eventually take over once I retire, and our Clan Elders... barring one, are here to see if you have what it takes." The man said, noticing his mother-in-law was not present in the crowd, thinking she was likely off gambling again... and most likely losing.

"Ehhh? Of course I'd have what it takes! I'm your son, ya know!" The boy said determinedly.

"That's the spirit! Alright, we'll start with your fire." The man cheered as he outstretched his hand and formed a small ball of orange-red fire in his hands. "If I remember right, you've only gotten to the point of being able to call on your mana, right?"

"I couldn't help it! That red-headed twerp keeps visiting on days when I sneak off to train!" Naruto excused. The man knew what his son was talking about but found it funny that his son would call his own best friend a twerp when they were only two years apart in age. "I swear, it's like their power was to psychically know when I'm doing something important and choose that time to interrupt me."

"Well, you know how Ajuka-kun likes to shut himself in his room and Falbium-kun is always napping. Sirzechs-kun just wants to have a more active playmate every now and then, and you of course, fit the bill." The man explained, ignoring an old memory of his own experiences with the current head of the Gremory Clan, and how he also seemed to bug him at the most inappropriate of times in their youth. "Anyways, just call up your mana and think about things related to fire and heat. Like a torch, the fireplace or the Sun. Visualize it in your head as you call upon your reserves."

"That's it?"

"Yes. For us Devils to use our power, Imagination and Creativity play a key factor. And you definitely have both." The man added, reminding his son about his little hobby of pulling pranks.

Naruto held his hand in front of him and did as his father told. Having only gotten so far as to access his mana to a small degree. It was a completely different thing to call upon it with a larger quantity in mind. His face scrunching up in concentration as he tried calling upon his flames, opening his eyes in time to see a small ember appear before flickering out. "I... did it, right?" Naruto asked as he panted a bit.

"You're probably calling up too little of your mana. That little ember wasn't what we were expecting to see. Again!" The man commanded. He wasn't trying to be harsh, but he knew that training would always need a bit of sternness to become effective. Naruto mumbled incoherently to himself, but did as told. This time calling up as much mana as he could muster, the ember returned in its usual orange-red before it started flickering. Not wanting to disappoint, Naruto continued to fuel the flame with his mana, the temperature increasing as the ember slowly grew and expanded before it exploded into a large burst of blue fire.

Once the smoke cleared from the burst of fire, they saw that Naruto was busy coughing to notice he was missing the arm he was using for his training. But they saw that his 'Flames of Rebirth', the Phenex's famed passive regeneration ability which many dubbed as their 'Immortality', was already working its magic albeit at a faster-than-normal pace. The arm was back to normal by the time Naruto regained his bearings after the explosion. "Uhh.. Did I do it?"

"You did. But that blue fire was unusual... What were you doing with it, Naruto?" The boy's father asked. He knew that even at that temperature level, no other Phenex had their fire suddenly turn blue like that. Even then, he could tell that the blue fire was innately stronger than the orange-red everybody else had.

"Well, I just kept feeding it my mana, I didn't know what else to do! And I didn't want to disappoint you again..."

The man's eyes softened a bit at that. "Alright, let's try one more time. But this time, I'll help you." The man then knelt down and stood behind his son, as the boy outstretched his hand and began to call up his fire, while the man kept his son's arm steady. _"It's likely that he has poor control... Thus, has large reserves... To fix that would need some continued practice. He just needs to be able to create a normal one..."_ The man thought, watching the ember flicker to life on his son's hand. "Now, fuel it with your mana... more... more..." He ordered as the orange-red fire began growing in size. He continued telling his son to add more mana as it became a basketball-sized fireball. "Stop. Open your eyes."

Naruto did as told and saw that he accomplished the task of creating his first real fireball, the only issue being that there was a small blue core in it, meaning he was very close to repeating his previous misstep. "Yay! I did it! Look, Mom! I did it!" Naruto said as he held the ball high up as he looked towards the woman from earlier.

"You're doing good, sweetie!" She cheered happily at her son's success.

"Hehe~... Thanks, Dad! Just wait 'til that tomato-twerp, lazy-ass and that shut-in sees this!" Naruto said excitedly as he thought about showing off to his friends. So focused was he on his victory that he didn't notice the fireball turn completely blue before exploding again. Though this one was a little more harmless, only covering the father and son duo in soot. The two registered what happened before bursting into a fit of chuckles, calming down when the boy's mother told them to move on to the next step.

"Alright. Next, we'll see your wind." The man said as he stood back up to his full height. He then created a fireball in his hand again and addressed his son. "The purpose of our wind abilities is to increase our flames' power by feeding it more oxygen. For now, you will strengthen my fireball, since you're only starting out. As you get older, you'll be able to strengthen your own fire with your wind."

Naruto nodded in understanding. "So I just have to call up my mana again?"

"That's right. But this time, try picturing things related to wind. The sky, the breeze or a windmill." He added before adopting a look of concern for his son who suddenly clutched his head for some reason. Unknown to him that the boy suddenly saw an image of a small blue ball with four, spinning white blades. But as quick as the image and the light pain suddenly came, it disappeared in the same brief instance. "Naruto? Are you okay?"

"Ah, I'm fine, Dad." Naruto reassured to his worried father. He then tried calling up his mana in the same manner he did with his fire, his hand outstretched and aimed at the fireball in his father's hand. While what happened next wasn't uncommon, it was still a surprise to the gathered crowd. Instead of a gust of wind, a shredding tunnel of wind appeared from Naruto's hand and fed the flames, but also managed to cause several deep tears in the man's arm. "Dad!" The boy exclaimed in concern after opening his eyes and seeing his father clutching his cut-ridden arm.

"I'm fine, Naruto. Don't worry. Us Phenexes are hard to kill, y'know?" He reassured as his own flames began healing his arm. The boy calmed down, but still had a remorseful look at hurting his father. "Don't look so down, Naruto. It's not uncommon for wind to be used for cutting, but it was just a bit surprising for everyone to see it at such a powerful level."

"But... I hurt you."

"Only accidentally. You're still young and just starting out. With more practice and training in the future, you'll be able to control your power much better. So cheer up, okay?" He reassured, affectionately rubbing his son's hair. The boy smiled brightly at that and nodded fervently, determined to be able to control his powers. "I guess, that's a good enough demonstration for his wind, right?" He asked to the Clan Elders, who all nodded at his assessment. Naruto did successfully enlarge his own fireball, after all. "Alright. The last thing we need to see is if you can make our wings."

"Wings? Like for flying?"

"That's right. Like this..." Wings made out of fire erupted on the man's back, but not at all burning his clothes nor was it hurting him. "As Phenexes, we are of course immune to fire we make ourselves. You probably didn't notice it, but your first blue fire explosion cost you an arm. Which I can only guess that it's because of you pouring so much mana in it. You saw it right? My arm healing thanks to the flames?" He explained when he noticed Naruto had an awed look and would have no doubt asked why the fire was not hurting him.

Naruto nodded for his answer to his father's question. At least that explained why nobody buys him when he makes an injury-related excuse to sneak off. "So how do you do that then?" He asked enthusiastically.

"Hmm... I don't really know. It's either instinctual or comes naturally, I guess? I learned mine when your grandfather threw me off a cliff. And your mother is gonna kill me if I did the same with you." He said with a light shiver as he looked towards his wife in the stands who sported a stern look as she met his gaze. Tugging at his collar at the slight unease he was feeling, he returned his attention to his son who was busy thinking up how to do it. "All I can honestly say is try and imagine flying in the sky. Just not too close to the Sun, okay?"

Naruto continued wracking his brain on how to do it, wrapping around the idea his father presented him with. Small red sparks began erupting on his back, but none of them forming into his own pair of wings. The boy panted a bit at all the exhausting work he's been doing lately, but reasoned that it was a good change of pace from his usual days of playing. He tried picturing himself flying again, this time getting a few more red sparks to appear but not at all getting the desired result.

"Remember, you don't need mana to create them, for they are a part of our biological makeup."

"You forgot to tell me that!" Naruto exclaimed, making his father rub his head sheepishly at his lapse in memory when he remembered that he did forget to tell his son that. Naruto tried again, but this time did not use his mana and tried picturing himself in his father's scenario of falling off a cliff. Red sparks appeared on his back before erupting in flames, which died down a second later revealing a pair of feathered wings. But it was not even similar to either an Angel's or a Fallen Angel's, for it was made out of translucent energy and the plumage was in a gradient rainbow color with red being the predominant shade.

The Elders began whispering among themselves while Naruto's mother looked at her son in concern while eavesdropping on what the Elders were talking about. Naruto's father on the other hand, was looking at his son's wings with a mixture of awe and concern for what this could mean. He was certain on his son's day of birth of October the 10th that he was a perfectly healthy boy, his strange whisker marks were even explained to be just birthmarks. _"First the blue flames, then the faster regeneration, next the cutting nature of his stronger wind, now this... Was it even possible? No, I'm pretty sure even a Solar Eclipse can't do all that or even one of those..."_ He thought as his memories returned to that day in the corridor outside the delivery room, where he was as the Eclipse began to start as the doctors prepared for his son's birth.

"Huh? Why is it different from yours, Dad?" Naruto asked, snapping his father out of his thoughtful trance.

"Oh! Uhh... Maybe you're just that special." He replied, unable to come up with a better explanation but enough to reassure Naruto. The blonde just smiled and admired his wings before waving happily to his still concerned but smiling mother. "Alright, we'll start with something easy. Just jump and try to stay in mid-air for half a minute. Like this..." Naruto watched his father lift off the ground and float in the air for a few seconds before returning back to the ground. He repeated the process only to fall down immediately. "You have to be consciously applying the desire to stay afloat, eventually you can do it subconsciously as you grow older with more practice."

Naruto tried again, this time managing 3 seconds staying afloat. He repeated the process multiple times, and each time managed to add an extra half-second. But Naruto was getting too tired to continue his practice. His father was about to tell him that it was more than enough, but refrained upon seeing Naruto muster up more strength to do one last attempt to get to the 30-second mark. They watched the boy lift off the ground, but instead of a few feet off the ground, managed to gain higher altitude. _"22... 23... 24...25...No way!"_ Naruto counted inwardly, cursing as he started dropping out of the sky a few seconds off the target time.

"30-seconds... You did good, Naruto." Seeing his son's confused look aimed at him, the man explained. "You have to count the seconds included in your ascent and descent too, since you are still technically in mid-air." He finished setting Naruto down to stand on his own once they got back.

The boy clutched his head again as a phrase rang in his head. _"Look underneath the underneath."_ And once again, it disappeared as quickly as it came. The boy quickly recomposed himself but still had to pant a bit since he was getting tired. "Is there anything else, Dad?"

His father motioned for his mother to come over before answering him, the Elders giving him a look telling him to come meet with them later. "No, this is all for today. So, would you like to go visit one of your little friends?"

"Wait Minato, I have a better idea." Naruto's mother piped in as she drew in closer and fretted over Naruto for a bit, making sure he was okay everywhere. They may have regenerative capabilities, but she couldn't help her motherly instincts when it came to her precious child. "How about we go visit Nerissa and Irvine? I'm sure the Sitri's would love for their daughter to meet Naru-chan."

"A girl? She won't have cooties, right?" Naruto asked his mother, who just giggled at his childishness. Having already met the Sitri's daughter before, so she thought the two would get along well.

"Don't be silly, Naru-chan. I'm a girl and I don't have cooties, right?"

"Of course~! You're my Mom, after all!" Naruto happily answered with a light laugh before they heard a very loud growling sound coming from Naruto. "Ehehe~... I guess I'm kinda hungry right now... Can we get a snack first?" He requested while rubbing the back of his head, a little embarrassed at the loudness of his stomach.

"Alright, alright. But it can't be Ramen, since you already had one for lunch." She reminded, making him deflate at being denied his favorite food, but quickly shook it off at remembering the wonderful taste of the one he had earlier. Naruto gave a nod of agreement to his mother's terms and rushed off back into the large mansion in the distance, leaving his two parents behind. "Minato? Is something the matter?"

"Just the things we've seen from our little boy today, Layla. It's not necessarily bad, but it does merit some looking into." Minato Phenex, the current Head of the Phenex Clan answered his wife, Layla Phenex's question in a curious and concerned tone. "The Elders also wish to speak with us, most likely they have already began forming hypotheses on what's going on with Naruto."

"Then let's get it over with while Naruto takes his snacks." Layla started in a no-nonsense tone before switching to a gushing motherly one. "I'm sure he and Sera-chan would become great friends!" She finished, making her way back to Phenex Manor with Minato walking alongside her, still thinking about what all this means for his son.

* * *

Naruto was watching the window as he and his parents sat in the carriage on the way to the Sitri Estate. He was holding a small box and a fluffy muffler in his hands, having been told by his parents that it might get cold during their stay, but he still had to wonder why they weren't wearing any winter accessories. Not to mention that it was near the end of Spring, so the heat was naturally increasing as Summer drew closer. While the box was for something important later on, or so his mother told him.

Minato was busy reading a book while Layla just rested her head on her husband's shoulder, looking towards her treasured son every now and then, as if to make sure he was still there. A few minutes pass as Naruto suddenly opened the window of the carriage as the view of a beautiful, crystal clear blue lake came in his line of sight. There was a large cliff on one side where an equally large Manor was situated upon with a stairways on the cliff face going down to a well-maintained dock on the lake. Naruto only knew it was well-maintained because of his enhanced eyesight that lets him see things even from very far away.

Naruto closed the window once the scene of the lake changed into a marble and gold gate. A minute or so later, the carriage came to a complete stop and the door opened to let them out. Naruto took initiative and got down, coming face to face with the Manor overlooking the lake he saw earlier. Naruto took the time his parents got off to hang the muffler around his shoulders so he could have one free hand to pet the two horses that pulled the carriage along as a sign of thanking them for their work.

Walking back to his parents side when the doors to the Manor opened, he noticed that the outside was filled with neatly-trimmed, thin trees, vibrant flowerbeds, elaborate water fountains and if his ears wasn't deceiving him, probably had a waterfall somewhere. _"I don't see how a muffler would protect me from the cold if it gets wet too." _Naruto thought idly as he and his parents walked towards the opened doors to the Manor.

The interior of the Manor was just like their own, fancy and elaborate, but had a few differences in the decorating like the colors mostly being blue in contrast to the wonderful orange the Phenex Estate had, and the crest resembling a necklace instead of a bird. He then saw two people walk down the grand staircase, a man and a woman he barely remembered as Lord Irvine and Lady Nerissa of the Sitri Clan. Lord Irvine had his wavy black hair slicked back into a short ponytail with two jaw-length bangs to frame his face which carried a pair of sea-blue colored eyes. Lady Nerissa's own black, wavy hair was tied into a long and elegant ponytail resembling a calm waterfall, while her purple eyes lit up in happiness at having one of her friends come over. "Layla! Minato! It's been such a long time!"

"Yes it has, Nerissa." Layla said as the two friends gave each other a hug, while the two fathers did the same with a one-armed version. "We even brought Naru-chan along."

"Oh my, he's grown so much since I last saw him." Nerissa commented as she walked up to the boy standing off to the side. The boy turning in time to see the woman kneel down to his height level. "Hello, Naru-chan. Do you remember me?"

Naruto nodded. Only barely remembering them because he was only two years old when they first met when his mother wanted to introduce him to them. "You lost some weight, Nerissa-san." Naruto observed, noticing in his memories that the woman had a bigger stomach back then compared to now. The older woman only laughed heartily at the boy's comment, not at all offended but had to lightly elbow her snickering husband who walked up to give Naruto a pat on the head.

"I guess I did." Nerissa returned. She then noticed that Naruto was holding some box and immediately guessed that Layla was likely up to something. Not that it was a bad thing. She would love for her daughter to become great friends with the little Phenex since her daughter had trouble making friends on her own. There was also the fact that the boy was also friends with the Gremory, Astaroth and Glasya-Labolas heirs, making a good gateway to introduce her daughter to more friends. "Would you like to meet my Sera-chan now?"

Naruto looked to his mother first, who gave him a nod to tell him to go ahead, The boy in turn, gave a nod to Nerissa who smiled happily as she asked one of the maids to fetch her little girl and bring her to the gardens in the back where the current party was headed. "You're boy looks a little beat up, Minato. Care to share why's that?" Irvine asked to the Phenex Patriarch.

"Today was when Naruto would start training in his Magic. For now, let's just say he passed all the required fields." Minato answered with an underlying meaning that he would go into detail later when they reach their destination. Irvine nodded at Minato's answer and opted to change topics to current Underworld affairs. Layla and Nerissa were busy doing some preliminary catching up while Naruto was off to the side taking in the sights and sounds of the Sitri Manor.

Upon arrival to the gardens at the back of the Manor, Naruto managed to spy in the distance what looked like the railing of the staircase leading down towards the dock and lake. The back was also filled with vibrant flowerbeds, and had neatly-trimmed hedges as opposed to trees. There was also a crystal clear water pool in a very large circular shape. _"Other than the pool and lake, it looks a lot like our own home."_ Naruto observed. The only difference between the exterior of the Phenex Estate from the Sitri's was the fact that the Phenex Estate was a forested area. He mused that it was to be expected since the Sitri Clan was one of the few at the 'Prince' rank amongst the 72 Pillars, while the Phenex was only at the 'Marquis' rank.

"Naru-chan?"

Naruto snapped out of his thoughts as he noticed Nerissa calling his name. "Ah, sorry. I kinda spaced out, what with the nice place and all."

"Thank you, you're such a dear." Nerissa accepted his compliment to her home with a smile. The boy just now noticing that they were under a gazebo. There was also some chairs and a small table where a teapot, some cups and a tray of biscuits lay. "Anyways, I was asking if you wanted to go wander the gardens for a bit? Until Sera-chan gets here?"

"Nah. I don't mind waiti-"

"Layla-san!" Naruto's answer was interrupted as a pink and black blur suddenly called his mother's name and simultaneously tackled her. The blonde woman giggling as the little girl continued hugging her. "Layla-san! It's nice to see you again! Are you here to play with me?"

"It's good to see you too, Sera-chan." Layla returned, adding in a little tickle as the girl got into a light fit of laughter. "Actually, I wanted you to meet my son."

"Huh?" The little girl looked confused at that and saw Layla motion her to look in Naruto's direction. She followed the motion and saw the blonde boy standing there with a curious expression as he watched the girl and his mother interact. Serafall let out a light squeak in surprise and hid behind her mother's dress, peeking out at random intervals.

"Don't be shy, Sera-chan. Say hello." Nerissa encouraged.

"...Hello." Serafall said, but not removing herself from her hiding place.

"Sera-chan, he won't be able to greet you properly if you don't show him your face." Nerissa added, slightly amused at her little girl's shyness. Serafall took another peek before slowly stepping out from behind her mother's dress, giving Naruto a chance to finally see her face-to-face. Like her parents, Serafall had long black hair, but it was not wavy like theirs, her hair was straight and flowing freely. She had her mother's purple eyes and was shyly trying to avoid eye contact with Naruto's own as well as playing with the hem of her short, pink dress.

"...H-Hello. My name is S-Serafall, b-but you can call me, Sera." She said again, this time with a small stutter at having to do it without a barrier.

Naruto put on a friendly smile as he returned the greeting. "Nice to meet you, Sera-chan! I'm Naruto!" He saw the girl ease up a little but remained a bit bashful. Naruto then felt his mother nudge him from behind and motioned with her eyes the small box Naruto was holding. _"Does she want me to give her the box?"_ Naruto wondered and just opted to follow his mother's lead. "Uhh... here."

Naruto offered the box to Serafall, who looked at it curiously before looking towards her mother, who just nodded for her daughter to accept it. Serafall took the box in her hands and opened it, only for her eyes to widen a bit. "Is this for me?" She asked.

"Uhh... sure." Naruto answered, curious what was in the box as well.

"Take it out of the box, Sera-chan. So everyone can see what Naru-chan got for you." Layla requested, sharing an amused smile with the other parents.

Serafall did as told, revealing to Naruto that the contents of the box was two thin, purple ribbons for one's hair. The girl held the two items in her hands and gave Naruto a hug to express her gratitude. "Thank you, Naru-chan! Here, help me put it on!" She requested happily, as she led the boy by hand to one of the nearby benches, all traces of her shyness gone thanks to Naruto's little gift. The two spent some time trying to figure out what style to put Serafall's hair in, trying a variety of styles that utilizes both ribbons before settling on a pair of two long pigtails on the sides of her head. "Well? How do I look, Naru-chan?"

"I think it suits you. It does kinda match your eyes." Naruto answered, making Serafall beam brightly and run off to show her parents, who were busy chatting amiably with each other after the third time watching the two try out new hairstyles for Serafall. The little girl returned shortly after with a small bounce in her step and grabbed Naruto's hands. "Sera-chan?"

"Hold out your hands and close your eyes." She requested firmly before adding. "And no peeking!"

"Why?"

"Muuu~... Just do it, pretty please?" She said as her face shifted into a cute, pleading look that Naruto sometimes saw on his mother's face that could easily make his father comply with any of the woman's requests. Unsure what the face was supposed to do, Naruto just complied with Serafall's request and closed his eyes while bringing his two hands up in a receiving position. He felt a slight chill in the air and couldn't suppress the shiver in his body. He wanted to wrap the muffler around his neck to add some extra warmth, but doing so would mean retracting his hand as Serafall did something with it. "You can open them now!"

Cracking his eyes open, he was no longer seeing a purple-eyed Serafall in front of him, the girl's eyes having shifted to a sea-blue color, but in a lighter shade compared to her father. He then realized that there was an object in his hands, and had his eyes move towards them to see a cute ice sculpture of a bird in flight. And despite the heat of the coming Summer, the ice wasn't even melting a drip. "Wow..." Was all Naruto could say as he held it in one hand while having his other wrap the muffler he brought around his neck. "Sera-chan... This is so cool!"

Serafall giggled at Naruto's unintentional joke and spoke up to explain her actions. "That's my gift to you! Mama said that I should give you a gift for our first meeting as well, but I didn't know what you would like."

"_Man, I'm totally outclassed..."_ Naruto thought, already guessing that the Ice was part of Serafall's Magic. It kinda miffed him a bit that a little girl two years his junior was also a natural at her family's craft. He had more than enough of that from his male friends, but he was determined to make up for that with training himself to the ground. The boy walked up to the table where the parents were watching and placed the ice sculpture on it. He then ran out of the gazebo and called towards his new friend. "Come on, Sera-chan! Let's play!"

"Ah! Wait for me, Naru-chan!" Serafall called out excitedly as her eyes returned to their usual purple color. The adults fondly watching the two children play in the garden.

"Care to bring me up to speed?" Minato requested to the Sitris, who already knew what he was asking about.

"While she has inherited the Sitri's Water affinity, Serafall has a stronger one to Ice. We figured it was just a rare trait she received, but it could also be a recessive trait that has been hidden within the Sitri bloodline." Irvine answered, taking a sip of his tea for a pause in his explanation. While Minato knew they had a daughter, only Layla was the one to actually meet the girl in person due to his work occupying most of his time. "Her eyes changing to blue is nothing too serious, just an indicator that she's using her Ice Magic. She doesn't have complete control over it yet, though. Like the cold air Naruto probably felt as she made the ice sculpture."

"I see." Minato nodded in understanding as he looked towards Layla. "So that's why you had Naruto bring a muffler." He then turned his attention back to the two kids, just in time to catch the alarming sight of Serafall getting a cut on her leg because of some stray thorns near the roses. The adults were about to step in, but Minato quickly stopped them as he saw his son help his newest friend. Not by helping her up or calling the parents or the servants, no what his son was doing was something he was sure no other Phenex was able to do.

His son was comforting the sniffling Serafall as he had his hand on her leg, and much to everyone's confusion and amazement, began healing her light injury with his Flames of Rebirth. He and Layla knew that such an ability was not even remotely available to other Phenexes. The only way the Phenex Clan was able to heal others was by the use of Phenex Tears, which needed to be performed in a sacred ritual to obtain. They saw Serafall stop her crying and hug Naruto again out of gratitude before the two resumed their game, letting the girl's parents rest easy and turn to Layla and Minato curiously. But the blonde Lord of the Phenex Clan could only replay in his head what the Clan Elders told him just hours prior to their arrival.

"_It is only a theory, Minato. Whether he is a reincarnation or a second coming of our great ancestor and progenitor: Suzaku Phenex, remains to be seen. Watch his growth and oversee his training... For in this world, those who bear deviations from the norm always have a greater purpose to fulfill."_

Layla knew what was eating at Minato's mind, having been present at the time as well. But if she was honest, she didn't want such foreboding words to ring true, knowing that a 'greater purpose' always requires a sacrifice to be made. Even now as they continued chatting amongst themselves, she kept looking towards her precious son playing with his new friend, each turn of her head always hoping that he was still there. That he will always be there.

Devils can't pray. But they can hope.

And for Layla Phenex, she hoped that these peaceful days together with her family would last forever.

* * *

**Author's Notes**

The chapter title is read as 'Sun's Tale I: Early Childhood'.

I know that it seems a little similar to 'Fire & Ash' by SoulReaperCrewe, but trust me, this will go in a very different direction. Because for one, this is not going to be like his betrayal/cheating heart story. I didn't ask for permission, but credit goes to him for any similarities between this fic and his, like Naruto being in the same Generation as the older Devils, and Minato Namikaze and Layla Heartfilia as Lord and Lady Phenex.

It's relatively minor, but I opted to give a first name to Lord and Lady Sitri so that I wouldn't have to keep writing their dialogue as 'Lord/Lady Sitri said'. Irvine and Nerissa have a water-related meaning that you can just Google, and I'll probably do the same with Lord Gremory as well. And yes, I know there is a clear difference between 'Suzaku, the Vermilion Bird' and an actual Phoenix, I just chose that name since both are related to fire anyway.

Now, the main point of this first chapter is to show the differences between Naruto and the other Phenexes (which is mostly for Rule of Cool), as well as his first meeting with Serafall, who is his main girl, but it will be like 'Fire & Ash', in that he and Sera won't get together until a long time.

This will be a Harem as well, but I won't tell who's in it, even if you PM me. I will also take on my stance in 'Beyond the Stratosphere' in that if you don't like Harems, feel free to pass over this fic. And I also won't limit myself with things like age groups and all those other limitations.

Also, just because he's struggling now, doesn't mean he's weaker than any of the Satans. I just thought about showing him struggle a bit in the beginning so it doesn't look like he's an instant expert at everything. Though I'm not sure if it could be a moot point, since the next chapter will have a time skip.

As the mysterious figure said, Naruto still has his Ninja abilities but can't access them because of memory blockage, which as you can see, is already starting to leak out and will only continue to do so over time. I assure you that he won't regain them over the time skip next chapter, though. The reason his own blue fire was able to hurt him will also be explained in time.

Next point is Peerage. Yes, he will have one, but many are already decided like the Queen and Mutation Piece. All of the ones I already decided on will be met on his journey, which will last a good amount of chapters later. I would say there are 7 spots left available, maybe less if you factor in the Evil Piece mechanics. And they will likely be part of the Harem too if they are female.

Final point, there is also a chance I might discontinue 'His Time and Eternity' depending on how I progress this. I know many are waiting for that fic to progress to explain 'That' Naruto's past as an immortal, his reunion with his main love interest Irina and start kicking ass, but I think I wrote myself into a corner with that fic, and simultaneously fell out of love with it. Now, I won't take it down yet. But it is very likely, since my ideas for that are starting to bleed over to this one, so there still might be hope for some Naruto/Irina here as well.

Uhh... I guess that's all. Any further questions barring 'who's in the harem?' is welcome.


	2. Sun's Tale II:

**The Sun's Heart**

**Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.**

* * *

"His progression in his inherited abilities is going well. It's also good that he knew that Fire and Wind won't always be enough to win a fight, and gathered new skills to accommodate those powers when rendered ineffective." The shadowed form of the 'Master' said, now watching a young, blue-eyed, blonde boy enjoying some kind of trip with his parents to a mountain range. "However, training alone or without a teacher can only get you so far..."

"With the way he has developed in personality, it shouldn't be too hard to spur him into some... 'events', right Master?" The youthful voice commented.

"Indeed. But first, we must gauge him in actual combat rather than watching him train. Send in Sing for this purpose, yet limit her to 20% power. It certainly wouldn't do if she 'accidentally' killed our 10 year old hero."

"But what if 'that' happens, sir?"

An amused chuckle resounded in the dark room before calming down shortly after. "Fufufu... While I doubt it would happen in their first encounter, it matters very little if Sing eventually falls for him. After all..." The shadowed form of 'Master' shuffled in the darkness, before a swishing sound echoed in the room, a dimly lit door opening as the youthful voice's owner's silhouette turned back to watching the monitors and keyed in the 'events', but not the 'outcome' of each one. 'Master's' voice echoing one last sentence before the door closed behind him.

"He should enjoy his life while he has it."

* * *

"...ki... Ani... ANIKI!"

A 10 year old sunny-blonde boy stirred awake as he felt himself get continuously jostled. Cracking open his bright blue eyes and turning his head slightly away from the ground he had the displeasure of eating, the boy came to the sight of a younger boy with crimson-red hair and bluish-green eyes. Like himself, he was wearing simple casual wear, and like himself was sporting several scruff marks. "Zech? What happe-shit!" The blonde tried asking, but the recent turn of events came back crashing in his head like a floodgate has been opened.

"We rolled off the mountain when that lady attacked..." Zech or rather, Sirzechs Gremory supplied helpfully as he sat down next to the blonde, who rolled over to lie on his back before sitting up. His Aniki, Naruto Phenex, held his head for a minute before he turned his head to see a broken and overturned carriage to the side. The blonde then looked around and saw they were in some kind of city. But it was far too different from any of the other cities in the Underworld they have been to.

"Where are we? Where is Sera-chan and the others? Where are our parents?" Naruto asked to the redhead who shook his head.

"Our parents are likely still fighting that lady. As for Sera-tan and the others... I don't know..." Sirzechs answered with a worried look. "As for where we are..."

Looking around, the two saw they were in the middle of what looked like a dusty cobblestone street in some kind of shopping district. But the place was completely empty, with naught another soul in sight. The buildings were mostly made of marble, which by the looks of things, has already lost its pristine beauty for quite some time. Glass windows were broken, stone structures were chipped and some parts were reduced to rubble, the wood was weathered and rotting, dead flowerbeds and dying grass, bones of various shapes and sizes, and there was plenty of overgrowth of various Underworld flora and small grottoes made from nooks and crannies that accumulated rainwater. The sky was painted in a sickly purple, and there was also a purple fog surrounding the place, yet it was not hampering visibility. Off in the far distance, behind some of the taller buildings, was a large citadel-like structure that was in no better condition than the rest of the city.

"Elan Vital, the City of the Dead." Both boys said simultaneously. While far from being the smartest in their little group, after seeing the structures and visualizing what they could have been when they were in prime condition, it was not hard for Naruto to link his studies to their current location.

This place was the Old Capital of the Underworld, Elan Vital. Architecturally, the buildings were made to invoke a feel of what the Angels' Heaven looked like, but also allowing the fruits of Human progress to influence the city's design. It was a single, self-sufficient, large city that doubled as a fortress on top of a landmass in the Underworld that had extremely large deposits of a mineral known as Skystone, which had the power to allow anything within a few meters of it to float when coursed with mana. It was labeled as the most radiant city to ever be created in the Underworld, emulating Heaven to such a degree that some even thought that it was Heaven when upon completion of its construction, Satan, The True Devil King used the Skystone deposits to raise the landmass Elan Vital was on to float in the skies, where he continued his reign over the Underworld unchallenged.

But Elan Vital's splendor was lost when the Great War came. It was a time period when the Three Factions of Judeo-Christian lore: the Angels of Heaven, their sinned brethren: the Fallen Angels, and the Devils of the Underworld all fought each other in a three-way war that would decide the fate of the entire world. At the end of the war, the Fallen Angel Governor: Azazel withdrew his forces while the Devil King and his Six Servants: Lucifer, Beelzebub, Asmodeus, Leviathan, Mammon and Belphegor used the last of their strength in a final and successful suicide attack against the Leader of Heaven: the Biblical God, after he used a great deal of his power to place thousands of seals on the Apocalyptic Beast: 666, who was beginning to awaken due to the damage the war was causing worldwide.

Of course, Naruto only knew of this thanks to being told the story from a certain observer who witnessed the event and was not part of either faction.

Without the King nor his Servants powering it, the landmass carrying Elan Vital began to fall out of the Underworld sky, crashing into one of the valleys in the Lindwyrm Trail Mountain Range, which were known for expelling a poisonous mist everyday for the latter 6 months of every year. Survivors of the crash fled and abandoned the city shortly afterward, the last known activity in the once great capital was laying the King's body to rest on his throne in the citadel at the center of the city, while his Servants were treated the same way at certain places. Thankfully, this event led to the discovery that the mist is only lethal to non-Devils. But even that bit of information was not enough to bring any of the populace, old or new, back to the city, giving rise to its new nickname as the 'City of the Dead'.

"Come on, we have to find the others." Naruto began, standing up and offering his hand to Sirzechs after dusting himself off.

"But, shouldn't we stay in one place so it would be easier to regroup?" Sirzechs questioned, unsure of whether he should take the hand offered to him. "If we can reunite with our parents, the search would go a lot easier, right?"

"Well, I'm not really going to just sit around and wait for an adult to do everything for us." Naruto retorted calmly, turning around to scan the surroundings for where they could and should go. "We don't know what could be in this city besides us, and there's no guarantee our parents will arrive any time soon... I'm the oldest out of all of us, so I have to be responsible and get everyone back together." He finished, showing a great deal of maturity for his age. Naruto usually wasn't this serious, often sporting a more easy-going nature most of the time, but the current predicament had to be dealt with seriously. While the poisonous mist wasn't lethal to Devils, prolonged exposure could still cause side-effects, and who knows how long he had been knocked out earlier.

"You just want to explore this place, Aniki. You know, that adventurous spirit of yours will bite you in the ass one day." Sirzechs commented, using a swear that bled over to him thanks to continued exposure to the blonde. Ever since he achieved proper flight after training his flying and speed extensively, Naruto had taken a liking for high places and going on adventures. He had gone on a few already, sometimes with or without a companion, but the former was definitely what he preferred. "But... you're right... who knows whats in this place. For all we know, there could even be poison-proof Youkai in here."

Sirzechs took Naruto's still outstretched hand, who promptly hoisted up the redhead, who then dusted himself off as well. "Should we leave a mark or trail here, Aniki? You know, so our parents can find us?"

"Yeah, just give me a sec." Naruto built up his mana, drawing a magic circle that crafted a small cord of magic around their ankles, with Naruto having a yellow one, while Sirzechs had a red one. He then shot a bullet of his blue fire up in the sky to signal his parents, tearing a hole in the clouds for a brief instant before it closed on its own. While he did have control of his Pyrokinesis and was able to produce normal orange-red flames, his blue fire made him distinct and would alert his parents right away that he was still doing relatively well. "This magic cord will make it so we can trace back our steps just in case we get lost or separated. Just make sure you don't go around in circles."

"I should be the one warning you about that last part, Aniki!" Sirzechs said, much to the blonde's slight embarrassment at being terrible at directions. Naruto shook it off and made another magic circle on the ground, this time shooting another shot of his blue fire skyward again.

"It only has a few shots, but this one is so they can find where this place is after we leave. Then they can just follow the trail the cord makes to find us." Naruto explained with Sirzechs nodding as they faced the direction of the King's citadel. "While it is unlikely, we might run into Sera-chan or any of the the others there. Sound good?"

"Better than just throwing a stick on the ground and following where it points. Lead the way, Aniki." Sirzechs said, making a light jab at the older boy. Not that Naruto minded, since they were really good friends. The two boys walked side by side at a sedate pace across the ruins of the capital, keeping their guard up just in case a poison-proof Youkai was lurking here or the lady who attacked them on their trip was.

An hour passed as the two kept walking across the truly massive city to the citadel where they hoped to find their friends. They were finding it a bit strange that their other friends weren't closer to the crash site like the two were, and knew that they would have stayed in place even if they woke up earlier than the blonde and redhead. Passing through another dried aqueduct, the two took a short break and vocalized their thoughts. "There is definitely someone else here." They said simultaneously again.

"You realized it too?"

"Yes, I did."

"Stop saying the same things I say!"

The two boys stared at each other awkwardly, mouth opening and closing but no more words coming out in fear of continuing their strangely synchronized speech. A good few minutes passed before Sirzechs cleared his throat to passively inform Naruto that he would speak up. "Think we should keep going? We may be quite strong, but we are still just kids."

"We can't split up, that's for sure." Sirzechs nodded at Naruto's assessment. Whoever it was that was squatting in the ruins of the old capital would be able to pick them off easier if they split up. That is, if he even still cares about the blonde or redhead, who he could have easily have kidnapped while Naruto was passed out. "Keep your guard up, Zech. We'll have to watch each others' backs a lot more closely once we get inside the citadel."

"Oh? And how would doing that change your predicament for the better?" Another person's voice entered the conversation, causing the two boys' eyes to widen at the intrusion. They placed their backs to each other and scanned the area for the source of the other person. "Good. You two are quick on your feet."

"Show yourself!" Sirzechs demanded, red-outlined black energy dancing on his palms and ready to fire. Naruto doing the same with blue fire coating both of his arms. Unlike Naruto, Sirzechs preferred keeping range, while the blonde preferred close combat. They could still fight at other ranges, but that was just their personal preferences.

"Dear, dear, the Bael's Power of Destruction, eh? I really should keep up with Devil affairs more often. I honestly thought you would just be another Gremory battery." The voice taunted, causing Sirzechs eyes to widen again at his lineage being identified so easily. "Well, lookie here~! Another Ether user has finally appeared! Freya would flip her shit if she ever learned of your existence, Phenex!" This time, it was Naruto's turn to widen his eyes at the voice's assessment. But not because he just correctly guessed the true nature of his blue fire, but because the voice was right next to both boys. The two turned around at the same time before something hit the back of their necks with great force, knocking them both out cold.

In Naruto's case, he was able to stay conscious long enough to see a bunch of black feathers falling around him, with matching feathered wings and a lock of black hair with gold bangs.

* * *

Bright blue eyes slowly cracked open to the sight of an unearthly green light before snapping open when the recollection of the events prior came back. Naruto quickly raised his body up with his hands and looked around, only to find himself alone completely alone in some kind of room with a glowing clump of green crystals on the floor for a light source. "Now where the hell am I?"

"Seems you're finally awake, Phenex boy." The voice from before echoed again, much to Naruto's anger. "Now, before you start yelling at me, let me tell you right now that I'm not going to show myself."

"I figured as much already, jackass." Naruto spat.

"Hahaha~! You got a mouth on you! I like that!" The voice said, obviously amused. "Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. And as consolation, I erased the term from your little friend's memories as well. So... No hard feelings?"

"Where is he? Where are my friends? I know you know, dammit!" Naruto demanded, coating his arms in blue fire again.

"Calm down. Your friends are fine. At least, little red is. As for the others, well... I don't know about them." The voice replied, making Naruto relax yet kept his guard and the blue flames up. "Now then, you're probably wondering where you are, right? You're inside the Devil King's citadel, specifically in the basement levels. Next, you want to know what I want from you, correct? Simple, I want you to find the Devil King's treasure and bring it to me. Do this, and I'll give little red back."

"Bastard!" Blue energy erupted around Naruto, sending a pulse wave that made the room rumble as some of the walls began to crack. "Show yourself and I'll fucking beat the living shit out of you!"

"So feisty! But I'm afraid I'll have to pass. You're a few centuries too early to challenge me, boy." The voice taunted, making Naruto expel another burst of his blue energy as his anger continued to grow. "But I don't doubt that you'll outclass me as you grow older. Fortunately for me, that won't happen until a long time, so be a good little puppy and go fetch!" The voice finished with a chuckle, Naruto was sure that whoever this person was, enjoyed messing with a child's emotions a little too much.

"How the hell am I supposed to know where the Devil King's treasure is? I don't even know what it looks like!" Naruto questioned, but the only response he got from the voice was a 'You'll know it when you see it' answer. "Fucking unhelpful asshole."

"I heard that!" Ignoring the voice's indignation and looking around the room, Naruto saw no visible exits on the walls and when he looked up, saw what looked like some kind of hole that had a few, layered metal grates. "Quick heads up, those metal grates are made from Deathsteel, meaning they sap mana when a spell is being cast near it."

"I know what Deathsteel does!"

"Jeez... you don't have to yell at me. I may be old, but I don't need a hearing aid, y'know." Unknown to Naruto, he was subconsciously making strangling motions with his hands as he listened to the voice of the man try to piss him off, well... piss him off more. Concentrating Ether in his fist, Naruto delivered a straight to the nearest cracked wall, easily shattering the marble and a few more layers of the wall away. "Damn, you're certainly creative with it. As far as I know, Freya only shoots hers out like it was stale candy." The voice whistled, a little impressed at the boy's ability.

"I don't even know who this person you're talking about is!"

"Freya? The Norse Goddess? Married to some old fart when she could better service someone younger with that smokin' hot body of hers... oh say... I dunno, me?" The voice explained, yet Naruto just opted to ignore whatever this strange person was talking about. That is, until the voice got back to trying to piss him off. "Honestly, did you live under a rock or something?"

"Shut. Up. Please." Naruto requested, a little more annoyed at the likely possibility of this happening frequently as this stranger has him raid the old King's palace. The voice simply stifled his chuckle but complied with the request. Naruto gave a thankful nod, more to himself regaining composure and focus rather than gratitude with the voice for complying. Climbing up the rubble made from the broken walls, Naruto followed the path he made, ignoring the many branching hallways in the abandoned citadel that he passed as he made to reach the end of the created path. The path he took came to an end at a very large circular room with a platform in the middle with four roads leading to it and some exit doors. The room was also vertically high and down below was a dark abyss that he guessed went deeper down. "Must be the citadel's spire..."

"Up leads to the King's throne room. Higher than that is to Lucifer's overlook and below is Belphegor's crypt." The voice supplied, making Naruto raise an eyebrow at him knowing these things.

"Alright, now I'm really curious. Who the hell are you? What do you want with the old King's treasure... if it even exists?"

"I guess I can entertain you. My name is Azazel, and judging by your reaction, you at least know who that is." The now named Azazel said. Sure enough, Naruto got a shocked look that the Fallen Angel Governor himself was the one stringing him along on this treasure hunt. "As for what I want... well... can't really say. Maybe I just want to see if it actually exists?"

"So even you're not sure!? You're such a fucking asshole!" Naruto snapped angrily at the answer given, blasting a large hole in the wall with a beam of Ether. The Fallen Angel just chuckled his annoying chuckle, not at all caring about being called names. "Why and how the hell are you even here? The poison mist is supposed to be lethal to non-Devils."

"You underestimate me, boy. Considering there is an abundance of it every year, did you really think I wouldn't just collect a sample and craft an antibody for it? Granted, the pill's effect only lasts for a few hours, but hey, that should be enough time for you to find the King's treasure, do our little exchange and leave me with enough time to fly away from here."

"Then what if there is no treasure?"

"Oh believe me kiddo, there's a treasure alright. I just said that to mess with you." Azazel replied, chuckling heartily again as Naruto now made stabbing motions with his hands, with several tick marks on his head. After calming down, Azazel continued. "Now, I have already searched the outlook and the crypt before, as well as the other Servants' outposts and any of the other rooms. The only place left I haven't searched is the throne room, and that's because there's some kind of seal on it that I suspect can only be opened by a Devil. Either that or there's some kind of specific key."

"Then get some other lapdog stupid enough to do it. Give me back my friends and leave us alone!"

"Hahaha~! I've seen a lot of Devils in my time, but you have to be dumbest one out of all of them!" Azazel mocked not even bothering to hide his mirth at getting under the boy's skin. "Listen up, kid. I'm the one holding the cards here... I have 'one' of your friends and you don't even know where I am. You're in no position to make demands, so just do what I say and we can smooth things over once you bring me the treasure."

Gritting his teeth at the given truth, Naruto gave a tired sigh and gave a defeated "Fine." The blonde headed for the center platform and checked its general area for anything that might make it move. "Oi, if you were able to go up top, you know how this works, right?"

"Fly."

"I hate you so much." Naruto muttered, calling forth two pairs of his beautiful wings which burst from a small stream of red sparks and made a few red feathers rain on the platform.

Azazel made an audible whistle at the display before speaking up. "Two pairs at such a young age... you're really something peacock." Naruto grew a tick mark at the 'peacock' comment but kept himself calm, not wanting to entertain the annoying Fallen Angel anymore than he had to. The citadel's spire went quite a few ways up, especially since Naruto was going up from a basement level. "Stop right here! That's the throne room!"

"How do you know? You haven't been there."

"Are you serious, kid? Do you really think something like a pantry would have such elaborate doors?" Clicking his teeth, Naruto dropped down on the platform in front of the elaborate doors that denotes the throne room. It was mostly decorated the usual design of squiggly lines, flowers, leaves and a myriad assortment of random things, but there was a specific drawing of one person on each door, both facing each other. But they were only distinguishable by the shape of their hair, the one on Naruto's left having spiky hair, while the one on his right had long and straight hair. "Alright, just try opening door. Hell, if you're ballsy enough, blast it open with your Ether."

Naruto did as told and tried pushing open the door, but it did not budge. He placed his hand on it and pulsed his mana, revealing the seal network, which Naruto couldn't even read. He examined the door more closely, but still didn't find anything that could possibly open it. "It's sealed shu-"

"Smear your blood on it."

"Excuse me?"

"Bite your thumb and smear your blood on it." Azazel elaborated his order, Naruto doing as told as he kept a mantra in his head that this was to 'save his friends'. Since his Flames of Rebirth would try to heal him otherwise, the young blonde bit his thumb for an extended period of time and quickly smeared the leaked blood on the door before his flames closed it up. The revealed seal network glowed for a few minutes before a clicking sound was heard, like something has been opened. "I knew that would work. Now get going, kid."

Naruto tried pushing the door open, but it still wouldn't budge. Azazel hummed for a few seconds before calling Naruto's attention to a glowing white line on the floor. "Where do you think it leads?" Naruto asked to the older man.

"I reckon where the real key to this room is. Honestly, all this trouble to protect a corpse of all things..."

"What the hell do you need the King's corpse for? I thought we were after his treasure?"

"You seriously think the King would keep the treasure on him?" Azazel asked rhetorically. "You gotta think a few steps ahead if you want to keep something of great material value safe. He might have the map to where it's actually hidden on him, though." The unlikely pair followed the trail of white light heading downwards to the ground level, where it went outside the citadel. To get this thing over with faster, Naruto flew over the buildings as he followed the trail, which was leading to some kind of solitary building in the middle of a grassy field.

"An orphanage. How surprisingly humane of the Devil King." Azazel commented dryly after Naruto peeked through the windows and saw a messy arrangement of beds inside. Naruto rounded the corner and entered the door where the white light was trailing into before stopping in the middle of the room. "End of the line. Get to turning those beds, boy." Azazel said with an incredibly lame pun.

"Damn, you're a real slave driver, Gramps."

"Oi! I'm not that old!" Turning over the beds surrounding where the light ended was easy enough, but it sadly did not yield any fruit, but an idea did spontaneously pop inside Naruto's head. Moving to directly above the light trail, Naruto tapped the floorboards a little before stomping his foot down and using his flames to burn the surrounding wood around it, revealing a secret tunnel where the light continued to go down to. "I didn't even think about doing that. Good job, kid."

Even if Azazel was kind of, well... 'is' a big jerk, Naruto didn't mind the praise he got from the annoying Fallen Angel. Walking down the into the depths of the tunnel, following the white light, Naruto slowly came across a large underground room that was dimly lit with fireflies inside lamps hanging on the ceiling. But what grabbed his attention was the four children that was sleeping on what looked like a small pile of blankets, three of them being his friends. "Sera-chan! Everyone!"

Naruto ran up to the pile and tried to stir awake his other three friends, but none would waken. Azazel felt a build up in mana and tried warning Naruto that it was about to show up in front of him, but for some reason the boy didn't hear him and completely stopped moving. Feeling a little worry at his rather useful pawn, Azazel stepped out of Naruto's shadow and began jostling him to get his attention, only to see that the boy's eyes were glazed, like he was in a trance.

"Uhh... What the hell is happening?"

* * *

"Se...ra-...chan...?" Naruto blinked as his mind synchronized with his body and saw that his sleeping friends were nowhere in sight. Instead, right in front of him, sitting on its hind legs was a cream-colored vulpine creature with a tuft of chocolate brown fur on its head, between its ears that had a gradient shade to it by turning lime green as it followed its spine. Its paws were also going in a gradient shade, from the cream colored body, to red joints, to indigo and then light blue paws. But the most noticeable feature was the nine tails it had that were swishing about behind it, two lime green, two blue-green, two light blue and three indigo. The last thing it had was a red cord around its neck that had a cute, round bell in a gold color with two blue marbles on either side of that.

"I've been waiting for you." The creature said without its mouth opening. Obviously, Naruto knew that it was talking to him, but before the blonde could ask what happened, the creature spoke up. "Worry not for your friends, they are safe. I have been caring for them ever since your carriage crashed in the city's ruins. But first, let me ask you... For what purpose do you seek to open the door to the Devil King's throne?"

"Huh? What the hell does that have to do with anything? You kidnapped my friends!" Naruto questioned. The boy tried calling on his various magics, but none would heed his call.

"Settle down, child. I assure you, there is a reason for all this. But for now, answer my question. What do you want with the King's throne?" Naruto tried explaining to the creature his current predicament as best as he could, trying to do so calmly yet unable to hide his irritation at it all. After he finished recounting his tale to the strange fox, the creature looked him in the eye as if it were peering into and judging his very soul. _"He is so much like you... Master."_ Several minutes passed before the fox nodded its head and spoke up again. "You are only following the Fallen Angel's orders because he holds one of your friends... Very well, our contract is established."

"What?"

The fox stood up from its sitting position, getting on all fours to walk closer to the boy. The fox held out one of its forepaws like it wanted the boy to shake it, who did so only because he didn't know what else to do. "I am now your familiar, Naruto-sama. The Spirit of Heart and the Skeleton Key, Verius. But I would like it if you called me 'Corrine' from time to time." Naruto could feel an unknown warmth bond with his soul after shaking Verius' paw, it also carried a feeling of trustworthiness, honest and undying loyalty, and a bit of something else the boy couldn't place. Verius turned around as the space they were in began to ripple. "I know you are confused, Naruto-sama. But rest assured, everything will be clear in due time... for now, follow this Azazel's orders and save your last friend. The door to the throne room is now open."

"Wait!" Naruto called out, trying to reach for the fox as the world began to spin into a messy blur, making him feel dizzy. He could barely see the image of another nine-tailed fox with orange fur overlapping with Verius' own. The major difference being that the orange fox had rabbit ears and human-shaped hands for some reason.

"You can call me anytime you need my help, Naruto-sama. I will always be free to lend my assistance."

Was the last thing Naruto heard from Verius before his dizziness at the swirling space snapped him back to the real world, where he found he was alone once again in the cavern. His three friends and the other child still sleeping soundly. "Oi, jerkface! You still here!? Azazel!"

"Ouch. What did I do to gain such animosity?" Azazel replied jokingly, once again back inside his hiding place within Naruto's shadow. The Fallen Angel Governor had to admit that he was a bit thankful at Naruto falling into a trance, the time limit for the spell he was using to hide in the boy's shadow was running out and he would rather not suffer getting hit by an Ether bullet if he could help it.

"Shut it. I was just checking." Naruto said in a no-nonsense tone, walking back to the pile where his friends was sleeping. He breathed out a relieved sigh at seeing that they and the other one was still breathing. _"Who is this other one?"_ Naruto thought, looking to the little girl with long pink hair tied with a black bow on the back of her head.

"_Is she not your friend, Naruto-sama?"_

"Corrine?"

"Hm? You say something, kid?" Azazel asked a bit confused at the boy's behavior who was looking around the place as if searching for someone. Now that he thought about it, the built-up mana he sensed earlier was now gone, but now he could feel there was a change in Naruto, who was ignoring him, causing a tick mark to appear on Naruto's shadow. "Hey, don't ignore me!"

"_I'm speaking to you through our linked minds, Naruto-sama. You need not voice your thoughts and arouse suspicion from the Fallen Angel."_

Naruto nodded at Verius' explanation and answered his new familiar's previous question. _"Sorry, I haven't seen her in my life... Do you know who she is?"_

"_I'm afraid I don't know either. I simply found her near your crash site and thought she was with your group. I noticed she wasn't a Devil like the rest, so I used my power to place an invisible air bubble around her to prevent her from accidentally inhaling the mist."_

"_She's not a Devil?"_ Naruto thought, Verius adding that even he didn't know what the little girl was because he had been unable to leave this place, waiting for a new and worthy master after his old one passed away. The blonde boy walked next to the sleeping girl and tried to wake her, but Verius' barrier prevented him from making contact.

"Oh ho... I see you're quite taken with Shinso's little princess..." Azazel teased. Naruto ignored the man's teasing in favor of a confused look to spur the Fallen Angel to explain. "The Lord of All Vampires, you know... red eyes, bad teeth, cravings for tomato juice in human-shaped cans."

"I know what a Vampire is. I just didn't know she was one... I mean, seriously? Pink hair? On a Vampire?"

Azazel gave an amused chuckle at the boy's disbelief. "Yeah. I'll admit, I'd have shit my pants if the guy himself didn't have it too."

"Are you serious?" Naruto asked, unable to believe that such a high-profile figure like the Lord of All Vampires would have something like bubblegum-pink hair.

"Live as long as I have and you'll meet tons of people, both normal and supernatural." Azazel laughed to himself. Naruto just let the unseen man do so in favor of checking his friends and the Vampire girl to see if they required any form of medical attention. "Getting into a bit of specifics, the little Vampire princess you seem so smitten by is not just any Vampire."

"There's a difference?"

"Yup, she's actually a Shinso Vampire. Though they both have pink hair, the Vampire Lord... let's call him Dracula to make this explanation a little easier, isn't completely blood-related to the little princess here." Azazel began to explain as Naruto began drawing a magic circle in the room. "You see, a Shinso Vampire can only be created when a normal Vampire drinks and absorbs Dracula's blood, inheriting his power in the process. Vampires who happen to be lucky enough at gaining such an opportunity, therefore become known as Shinso Vampires. You could say they are the Alpha Vampires."

"But wouldn't that technically make them blood-related anyway?" Naruto asked genuinely curious, but Azazel mistook it as some kind of lame joke.

"Hahaha, very funny, kid. You really think something like that is enough to be a blood ritual that can change one's genetic makeup?" Azazel said with a mocking laugh at the joke before asking his rhetorical question. "Then again, considering that Dracula is their common Ancestor, what with being the first Vampire and all, I guess she is a little blood-related to him." Azazel mused before shrugging his shoulders, not that anyone could see. "So, what's going on now?"

"I'm making a magic circle to push this underground room up to the surface." Naruto answered, finalizing the symbols on the magic circle he was drawing. "Since I doubt you'll help me carrying them out of here. Plus, I can't even touch pinkie over there, so I have no other way to get them out of here." Naruto finished, Verius apologizing in his head about the helpful yet troublesome barrier he placed.

"So, treasure time after this?"

"Yeah. Maybe the door is open now." Naruto answered, not wanting to reveal what transpired between him and his new familiar. The circle he made began glowing a brown light, making the earth around them shake before the room began to cave in, with Naruto's channeled mana creating an automatic barrier to push away the rocks that fell near him or his sleeping companions. The ground underneath them began to rise up from the blasted open ceiling, bringing them back to the surface a few meters from the now burning orphanage. "Crap, I forgot about that." Naruto cursed, remembering that he forgot to put out the fire that made contact with the wood that hid the underground tunnel's entrance.

"You're really hopeless."

"_Corrine, can you do something about that?"_ Naruto asked. Verius telling him that he can extinguish it, but told the blonde that revealing his existence to Azazel might be a bad idea. Verius then said that he can summon him with a delayed materialization at the cost of extra mana. _"Cool. I'll leave it to you then."_

"Oi! Are you just gonna leave them there?" Azazel questioned, seeing Naruto walk away from his sleeping friends.

"Don't be stupid, Gramps. I placed a magic circle nearby that will shoot a blue fireball skyward that will notify our parents that are obviously looking for us. And I would prefer that I have all of my friends accounted for when I come back here."

Azazel simply nodded in understanding as Naruto summoned his two pairs of wings again, before taking off. Neither of the two catching the pink-haired Vampire starting to stir awake and slowly crack her eyes open, revealing emerald-green irises that managed to catch a glimpse of the Phenex's flight back to Elan Vital's citadel.

* * *

Arriving back to the front of the throne room's doors, Naruto saw the seal network that was still revealed still continue unlocking itself. "Whoever placed the Devil King's body in here must be one paranoid weirdo... Just look at how many seals there are!" Naruto exclaimed in amazement.

"I hear ya. Even I haven't seen this many... I would have though, if I didn't pull my forces out of the Great War too early." Azazel added, already realizing and taking note that Naruto knew a bit too much about what transpired in the last stages of the Great War, despite likely being only a year old or so at the time. While the Fallen Angels did pull out early, Azazel and some of the higher rank members of their Faction still knew what happened to their former Father in his last fight with the Devil King and his Servants, thanks to his former brother and the current God, Archangel Michael.

"So you saw this place before, right? Back when it was still the capital?" Naruto asked, making a bit of small talk until the seals were completely unlocked. Mind you, he was also a bit curious if the stories about the city were true, since relying on only one source of information wasn't a guarantee that everything was accurate.

"Yup. I guess you could call it the Heaven in Hell. This city was truly a sight to behold back in the day. Too bad my first visit had to be an invasion!" Azazel laughed a bit bitterly. Truthfully, he would have wanted to visit the once-great city under better terms. Devil women were ridiculously hot after all.

A loud clicking sound resounded in the empty citadel, gaining the attention of the unlikely duo. Turning their attention back to the door, they saw the seal matrix glow an unnatural black light before disappearing. The doors then began to spread apart on their own, exactly in between the two drawings of the people on them. Going through the large portal and into the throne room itself, Naruto came to the sight of the True Devil King... or rather, what was left of him.

Sitting on his throne was nothing more than the former King's skeleton, still dressed in the tatters of what could only be assumed as his clothes and armor on the last day of the war. The only distinguishable feature left was the string-like strands of long, whitened hair on his head. Everything on the former King's corpse was now chalk-white likely from the decay that has happened to his corpse over the years. The room itself was extremely dusty and had some kind of pungent smell despite being an open-air throne room, but the two surmised that the seals simply locked the smell in.

He may not have known him, but Naruto nonetheless paid his respects to the former King before he began looking for whatever it was Azazel was seeking. The room was almost completely bare, having nothing else other than moth-eaten curtains, pillars that were reduced to rubble, a few holes in the walls, and the throne and its occupant. _"Corrine, think you can help me out on anything?"_

"_All I can say is try pulsing your mana, Naruto-sa-"_

"_Enough, Corrine. Naruto is fine, no need for any of that '-sama' stuff. I'm not the Clan Head yet anyway. Even then, I'm not one for formalities."_

"_...Very well, Naruto-sama."_ Verius replied, making Naruto audibly groan at his familiar's obliviousness, much to Azazel's continued confusion. Naruto did as Verius recommended, promising to himself to learn some kind of sensory spell once he got back home. It took a good few minutes until Naruto felt it, a small feeling that was calling to him, but was fading in and out like a small candle. Following where the feeling was coming from, Naruto found himself standing in front of a pile of rubble with something sticking out from it.

"_That's...!"_ Azazel gaped as he used his own sensory technique to analyze the object in the rubble that was in front of Naruto. The blonde boy gripping the object and used as much strength as he could muster to pull it out. It took a few tries for the young 10 year old to get it out, having to push some of the rubble away just to make it easier. It was a very long, two-handed broadsword with a golden, trapezoid-shaped guard decorated with lightning bolts and a sun-with-rays in the center which housed a green gem, the hilt was wrapped with red velvet and capped with a gold pommel, and finally, the blade was a simple black blade with silver edges, but Azazel, who has seen this weapon before knew there were special golden runes on the blade's flat side that only revealed itself when held by its chosen wielder. _"The Shining Light... What the hell is it doing in the Devil King's throne room?"_

But the fact that the runes weren't appearing as Naruto scanned the surprisingly still-pristine blade in his hands let Azazel breathe a bit easier at the fact that Naruto was not its chosen wielder. Azazel could practically imagine the uproar it would cause if the holiest of holy weapons was wielded by a Devil of all people. That's not even counting the other Gods who would love nothing more than to own one of the greatest treasures to ever be created.

While Azazel was busy with his thoughts, Naruto was busy appraising the blade with a curious look. _"I don't really know how to wield a sword... It's kinda heavy too..." _Naruto thought as the weapon's weight was taking its toll on his arms, making the sword fall on its tip while he still held on to the hilt. _"Corrine, what do I do next?"_

"_This I can help you with. Bring the blade to the King's corpse and try running the blade through it." _Verius answered, but did not answer Naruto's subsequent 'Why?'. The blonde boy dragged the sword by its hilt and brought it up to level with his chest when he reached the front of the King's skeleton. He kept the weapon steady before plunging it in, but the weapon didn't even touch the body. Instead, it tore a hole in the space before it, revealing a strange alternate space where a single glass vial with some kind of radiance inside lay floating within. _"There it is, Naruto-sama. Reach out and take it..."_

"_Is this the treasure Azazel was looking for?"_

"Damn, kid. How did you know that you had to do that?"

"Uhh... Devil's Intuition, I guess?" Naruto answered the Fallen Angel's question as he reached in to the separate space and grabbed the vial. Had Azazel been actually visible, he would have narrowed his eyes at the rather weak excuse the boy gave. But that mattered very little now, since the boy did get him Satan's treasure. Now all he needed to do was make the exchange some place where he could quickly leave the boy in the dust after swiping the Shining Light, receiving the vial and giving the redhead he had in his captivity back as promised. "So, where are we doing this exchange, Gramps?"

"Down in the courtyard should be fine, bring the sword with you too."

"Are you kidding me? You expect me to lug this heavy ass sword around?" Naruto asked incredulously, Azazel remaining absolutely silent to imply he was no longer screwing around now that what he wanted was practically within his grasp. "Fine. But you better give me my friend back, or I swear I'll kick your ass!"

"Heh. I may be a Fallen Angel, but I'm no low-life. I'm a man of my word, boy. So get going!" Naruto dragged the sword across the ground and made his way back to the platform, where he hoisted the sword over his shoulder after putting the vial in his pocket. Summoning his wings, Naruto kept his flight steady as he descended down the tall spire, a little happy that this adventure-turned-pain in the ass-quest was finally coming to an end. All he needed was his last missing friend and regrouping with his parents and he can put his trip in the 'City of the Dead' in his memory banks.

Landing on the ground level with a bit of strong force, Naruto dropped the sword on his shoulders back on the ground and began dragging it again as he made his way outside where they can finally do the exchange. _"Be careful, Naruto-sama. He is planning something... and-"_

"_It's alright, Corrine. As long as he gives Zech back, I couldn't care less about what he's planning."_ Naruto interrupted. They may have butt heads a lot, but Sirzechs was still his treasured friend and he valued those bonds greatly above all else. Even the strange visions he received from time to time seemed to enforce that belief.

"_..."_ Naruto cut the connection quickly after that, leaving Verius alone with his thoughts. _"Such a complex yet wonderful heart... so similar, yet also different... You really are something else, Naruto Uzumaki-sama."_

"This place should be good. Now, close your eyes, clap your hands and say you 'believe'." Azazel began. Naruto just cussed at the Fallen Angel, who just chuckled again before finally stepping out of the boy's shadow and standing behind him. He cleared his throat to gain Naruto's attention, making the boy turn around to meet the black and gold haired man face-to-face. "Now then. I'll be taking the King's treasure..." Azazel demanded, outstretching his hand expectantly.

"Nuh-uh, show me my friend first!" Naruto countered, taking the vial out of his pocket with his left hand but kept it close instead of handing it over. Azazel created a small Light Spear in his hands and threw the weapon lazily at one of the nearby buildings, making the wall crumble and reveal a knocked-out Sirzechs sitting on the floor of a shop with his back against the wall and his head down. Naruto's superior eyesight managing to catch a rise and fall of the redhead's chest, indicating that he was still alive. "Alright... Here."

The blonde handed over the hand that had the vial, but before Azazel could grab it, a pink-colored energy bullet went through both the vial and Naruto's hand, the glass shattering and spilling its contents as Naruto yelled in pain at the strange light from it began slowing his regeneration, making him experience the whole pain of having a magic bullet, glass shards, and a strange liquid diluted in the same light attribute go through his hand and enter his bloodstream. The boy fell on his knees, clutching his pierced hand as he began fading in and out of consciousness at the light that was poisoning him. Azazel gauged the angle the shot came from and turned his head accordingly to a building where the assailant was standing with an impassive gaze and the weapon that shot the bullet still aimed in the same spot.

The assailant's appearance could easily be summarized with the word: white. She had pure white hair that was tied in some sort of spiky ponytail in the center of the back of her head, but the 'tail' was flaring out sideways in opposite directions, making them look more like pigtails with the one on the right being shorter in length. She had magenta-colored eyes that didn't even seem to have any light in them and an unearthly pale skin-tone throughout her rather slim body. Her clothes consisted of a white bikini top under an open white hoodie with black lining and a black star on the middle of the back and short, white gloves. Her lower half was clad in white, short-shorts that had a black belt with a silver buckle, white thigh-high socks and white boots with black lines. Her weapon looked like some kind of cannon that looked like it could be carried around despite its large size. And yes, it was also colored white. The girl leaped down from the building she was on and slowly walked towards the two with her impassive gaze still in place.

"Naruto Uzu-... no, Phenex... stand up and fight." She said in a monotonous voice. Naruto weakly turned his head, and if he wasn't suffering from light poisoning, he would have widened his eyes when he saw that it was none other than the person who attacked them during their trip earlier when everyone was still together. The girl aimed her cannon at him again, this time aiming a bit closer to his body but not directly.

"Crazy... bitch... stand up and... fight she says..." Naruto muttered through gritted teeth. As he felt the light poisoning him slowly be purged by his flames, Naruto drew up as much strength as he could to stand up, using his unscathed hand to help him up by pushing him off the ground. _"This is gonna suck."_ The blonde Phenex thought as he gripped one of the larger glass shards and pulled it out, whimpering at the pain he felt when he did so. He could feel a burning sensation in his hand as he repeated the process until all the visible shards were out before he waited for his flames to stabilize and expel the smaller ones that he was unable to pull out on his own. All this while Azazel kept him and the assailant in his periphery while also eying the broken vial that was now completely dry.

The blonde turned and faced the girl who moved her aim accordingly, Naruto building up his mana for active duty at having no choice but fight as she wished. He doubted Azazel would step-in to prevent this fight from breaking out either, considering the girl already ousted the Phenex as her target, and Azazel had no reason to fight a battle that was not his own. "So... you have a name? Or are you... fine with being called... crazy bitch?" Naruto asked, panting in between to regain his breath.

"..."

"Well?"

"...Sing." The older-looking girl answered, as if she herself was trying to wrack her own brain for an answer, like she didn't know her own name. Naruto nodded his head sagely, finding it was at least good that she had a name, vaguely seeing silhouettes of creatures who were never called by the names given to them and was always called by some kind of number-themed name. Naruto then snapped his fingers and made a tower of orange-red fire erupt from under Sing's position, having created a landmine-like magic circle when he slumped down on his knees earlier. Azazel wisely retreated to a distance and watched the ensuing battle with interest, wanting to see what the Golden Child of the Phenex Clan can do, not even noticing the Shining Light turn into light particles and disappear.

_"Sorry. But I cannot allow you to take this weapon, Fallen Angel. It will be able to find its chosen wielder better in Naruto-sama's hands..."_ Verius said without establishing the mental connection, hiding the sword within Naruto's body to prevent Azazel from taking it, having noticed the strange way the Fallen Angel eyed the weapon.

The Fallen Angel Governor knew that Naruto was only liberal with his Ether element earlier because he didn't expect someone who actually knew what it was to show up out of nowhere, and thought he could keep it a secret by having it adopt a flame-like look and matching properties to pass it off as blue fire. The Ether element's power didn't come from just having sheer destructive force directly below the Power of Destruction's level, but because it was able to take on the properties of other elements and can be formed into anything that is made with the main purpose of 'destroy'. There was also using it in its raw state, where its destructive force is increased to be on par with the Power of Destruction at the cost of not being able to use shape or affinity changes on it, making only Non-Elemental blasts. What made Azazel confused was that despite not even knowing of the Norse Goddess, Naruto still knew what it was and cleverly made it so he he kept it a secret under the guise of blue fire.

Unknown to the Fallen Angel, the same person who told Naruto about the Devil King and the Biblical God's demise was also the one who told him of his special gift.

"_That won't be enough to stop her..."_ Naruto surmised inwardly, focusing his mind and tapping his heel on the ground under the guise of a rhythm, but was actually setting up more traps. _"Corrine... can you get Sirzechs out of there? Bring him to where the others are at?"_

"_You would have to make a cover of smoke to keep me concealed from Azazel's sight."_

"_I can do that. Just summon yourself when it happens, 'kay?"_ Verius gave a yip of understanding the plan. Now that the Devil King's treasure was no longer able to be taken by the Fallen Angel, Naruto was unsure if the man would still keep his word on giving his friend back. Holding someone hostage isn't exactly something that makes a person trustworthy.

Sure enough, pink bolts of magic bullets came flying out at high speed from within the pillar of fire, the girl named Sing slowly walking out of the blaze with naught a scratch after Naruto quickly redirected the shots by shooting fireballs at an angle. Gathering mana in his hands, the blonde boy tossed a mess of orange-red dust at Sing, covering the air space around her with the substance. The stoic girl stopping in her tracks to eye the technique that didn't seem to do anything, which distracted her enough for Naruto to shoot an extremely small fire bullet that ignited and caused the embers surrounding Sing to explode.

The smoke it caused was enough to shroud the battlefield for Verius to materialize and run off to grab Sirzechs and bring him to where the other children were. Naruto didn't know what reasons Sing had to attack him, but he wasn't going to take a chance for her to probably use Sirzechs as some kind of shield or hostage for the ensuing battle.

Feeling a change in the wind, Naruto immediately covered his hands in flames and brought them up just in time to catch Sing's cannon that was about to slam into him, cracking the street he was on due to the force and weight of the weapon as he struggled to keep standing. Sing reached over into her weapon and pulled out what looked like a thin, pure-white katana that she immediately used to slash Naruto's arm. The boy whimpered in pain again, barely managing a back-step as the cannon came crashing down due to his temporarily damaged arm. Sing aimed her cannon at him again and shot three rounds of pink magic bullets that collided with a wall of fire Naruto summoned using some of the magic circles he spread out earlier.

Using that same wall, Naruto punched it several times, launching blasts of fire at Sing who parried the shots with her white blade. But after recovering enough, Naruto burst out of the fire by making a diving kick accompanied with more shots raining down at Sing, who was quickly engaged by the boy in close combat, making sure that her dodges weren't being forced into colliding with one of the raining shots. Unfortunately, Naruto's attempt at breaking Sing's guard was completely unsuccessful due to her guard being defended by a very durable weapon.

Naruto could easily tell that Sing would normally have no problem defeating him, considering she wasn't even making a counter attack and was just parrying, blocking or dodging all of the blonde's attacks. Growing tired and irritated at his lack of success, Naruto performed a burning roundhouse kick, using some wind to elevate himself to Sing's head, who was in a position where she could only block the incoming attack. And when she did block Naruto's leg by catching it, the now upside-down blonde expelled a breath of fire from his mouth aimed at her midsection, causing to her to drop him. He quickly recovered and grabbed onto her by her torso and gathered as much strength as he could to lift her off the ground and slam her headfirst into the pavement behind him, subsequently triggering a magic circle that released another pillar of fire, but this time having blue wisps of Ether in them for good measure.

Sing burst out of the pillar of flames with several scorch marks marring her pale body, but nothing too serious other than having trouble with her breathing. Naruto rushed out of the dying flame pillar with his right hand carrying a ball of flame and Ether that was raging wildly in his hand, ready to be driven into his opponent. He was unscathed, save for a few cuts and tears here and there because of the Ether, but even that was already recovering quickly, now that the light poisoning in his body was isolated. Sing stood up and raised her cannon to block the incoming attack, but her troubled breathing caused her to stagger and drop the huge firearm, leaving her only with her katana to block.

The white-haired assailant could only gape in shock at seeing her white blade be broken to pieces in that instant. But that was the least of her worries. She could only cough out blood as her eyes trailed downwards to the impact point of the attack, where part of the right side of her abdomen was missing, having been torn and burned off by the flames. She craned her head to the side as blood leaked out of her mouth, seeing the boy down on one knee panting heavily before turning his own head to lock eyes with her. Despite her critical condition, Sing and Naruto was still able to stare at each other before the older girl was enveloped in a strange black-colored light that teleported her away.

Naruto lost what little remained of his energy and fell flat on his face, still panting tiredly before he began to completely lose consciousness at both the exertion and the pain in his left hand, where he isolated the light from the vial earlier. Had he managed to stay awake for at least another few minutes, he would have been able to hear the voices of his friends and parents call out to him as they rushed towards his position.

Up in the sky, Azazel made a tired sigh after watching the rather unusual battle. He could tell that the girl named Sing was holding back a great deal of her strength, like she was just testing the boy. But then again, so was Naruto in a sense. He could have easily used his Ether right off the bat and tore the girl apart, but refrained from doing so for some reason, and instead used an unorthodox combination of traps and normally-suicidal attacks with his regular fire. Not wanting to dwell on an issue that might brew him a headache, Azazel turned around and flew away. Though he was a little disappointed that he was going home completely empty-handed after months of searching the old Devil capital, he reasoned that it wasn't a complete loss.

After all, not every treasure was one of material value, and he just found one that was worth keeping an eye on.

* * *

**Author's Notes**

Chapter title is read as 'Sun's Tale II: A Sun's Heart'.

Now before we delve into the mind of this shitty author, allow this shitty author a bit of a rant. I know that reviews are the lifeblood of a story and all, and while it doesn't really matter to me if I get a shit-ton of them, I won't deny that I enjoy reading the myriad assortment of responses I get from anyone who reads any of my stories. Hell, even seeing a ONE point increase in review count gets me excited to see what the review contains. BUT! It absolutely-positively irks me when I see a stream of Guest Reviews that basically all say, "UPDATE, DAMMIT!"( I had to delete a couple of those because it was so disgustingly unsightly) It makes me want to turn off Guest Reviewing, just so I can cut that crap out from polluting the review count, but I choose not to because Guests are just as much part of this community of readers as the signed-in users. So please, and I cannot stress this enough, please be PATIENT! Remember, we authors don't get paid to write fanfics. Some of us have to be functioning members of society so we can pay for things like electricity and an Internet connection to even bring you these stories. So do me and my fellow writers a favor and be patient, even if a fic hasn't updated in a long while(like this one), don't spam their review counts with demands for an update. Unless they slipped into a coma or died, just assume they are dealing with their real life problems.

Anyways... onto story-related matters!

Now the reason this took a while(okay, not a while... a long-ass time) is because I had to do many rewrites of what I wanted the second chapter to be. One of which was making the time skip go up all the way to the peak/end of the Devil Civil War, but I felt it would be better to slowly work towards it. Originally, my outline only made story arcs like this one(Sun's Tale) last five chapters, each representing basic plot structure(Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action and Denouement), but I decided to just say 'fuck that noise' and let the story arc write itself while I follow my outline. Now, this chapter may look like it's just some unnecessary padding, but I can assure you that a lot of stuff that happened here is very relevant to the story in the long run.

Do keep in mind that I tagged the 'AU' tag there for a reason, and considering this is a good 200+ years before canon, there is plenty of time for some things like characters and setting to change, like Azazel being a bit of a troll. While this chapter looks a bit dangerously close to a mistake I made with 'Eternity', I didn't want the only interaction Naruto had with his friends be only about the ones involving him and Serafall. Hence, why I had her and the others knocked out and had him working with Sirzechs, even if it was a bit short-lived thanks to Azazel.

This chapter also introduces several other series characters as well as a bit of the Watcher/Master's machinations like forcing an event where Naruto fights Sing, keep in mind, Naruto is only 10 years old and while he did win against her, he had to struggle a bit to gain that victory. Most of the fights in this first arc will be like this where he struggles a bit early on, but most of those struggles is because of things like pre-battle/battle conditions. In this case with Naruto vs Sing, he had no physical weapon to fight Sing's cannon and sword and had been using his mana a lot beforehand like the beacons and regeneration. He may be a stamina-freak with large reserves, but he's still just a kid.

For those of you who don't know, Sing is White Rock Shooter, but not exactly the same one from the Black Rock Shooter: The Game, since obviously her appearance is more similar to BRS. There's going to be a reason for that which will be explained in time, since Sing will be one of Naruto's recurring enemies.

Verius is originally the Summon Spirit of Heart from Tales of Symphonia, his nickname 'Corrine' was his past self when he was an artificial Summon Spirit and his other title 'The Skeleton Key' will eventually be revealed. He will be Naruto's familiar and a bit plot-relevant, but if you want Naruto to have more than one familiar, just tell me and I'll see what I can do.

And lastly, though she went unnamed, you have already likely guessed that the little Vampire girl was none other than Akasha Bloodriver from Rosario+Vampire. Can't say when she'll make her next appearance, though. But she will be fairly important later.

I don't know when Ajuka was supposed to invent the Evil Piece system, so I'm going to assume it's sometime after the Devil Civil War. So the whole Peerage thing will take a long time to show up. By Ch1's reviews, it's a mixed reception of all female and mixed. To clear that up, it will be a mixed peerage with both males and females. But the only male I currently have for it is Siegfried, and that's because I agree with one PM'er that it sucks how he died in the LN. I've already decided on the Queen, a Bishop, a Knight, a Rook and a Pawn (though the exact no. of pieces they take is unsure). Might as well answer the Harem question in that it will be a mix of people from the DxD-verse and those I bring in from other series.

Last thing, I put up a new poll on my profile regarding a future chapter that is very relevant. I'd say you have about two chapters from now before I close and finalize it. And trust me, your vote counts. Anyways, the next two chapters won't take as long, since it is what would have been the second chapter split in half, so both are already halfway done(that is, if I don't tweak them or make them beefy chapters).


End file.
